Alienware 16 Area-51 laptop review: Dell's best flagship gaming laptop yet

[Redaktion]

Dell is refreshing its Alienware lineup this year from the ground up with new Arrow Lake CPUs, new Blackwell GPUs, and a new AW30 design language. The Area-51 looks and feels better than what came before it, but it still exhibits a lot of the same Alienware advantages and disadvantages.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-16-Area-51-laptop-review-Dell-s-best-flagship-gaming-laptop-yet.1027688.0.html

[PHVM_BR]

There is an error in the text:

All 3 m.2 slots support Nvme Gen5 for configurations with RTX 5070 Ti and above.

For versions with RTX 5070 and below only one of the slots supports Nvme Gen5.

[RB15 User]

I think if you have to post up performance figures of one performance mode, due to a lack of time, it should be the Turbo Mode and not the Performance mode. A lot of the people buying these high end gaming laptops are performance enthusiasts and want to see the highest CPU/GPU performance available, not hamstrung because you thought the laptop is impractical/too loud on Turbo. That can be covered in the noise section and people can take a call if they find that acceptable.

Second, why are most of the performance charts showing figures against a Razer Blade 16 (which is absurdly tiny compared to this Alienware 18 DTR) and/or Vector A18? I think again leaving out the Legion 7i (with the 5080) is a bad move on your part. That's the laptop that has set the performance standard for this GPU generation, and likely what a person considering a performance-focussed laptop would compare it against, so prioritize comparing all laptops with the Legion, other thinner and lighter laptops are less important.

[Sarah-Ranger]

I'd love to see the Strix and Zeph notebooks in the comparison too...I was surprised by how little it beats the Blade!  I don't really trust Razer's reliability though.

The temps look great, I've had good luck with Alienware, I love the mechanical keyboard, but the weight and size are intimidating, and I hate that the screen and speakers aren't better.  I'm glad it's brighter...but why don't they have a higher quality option to match Strix Scar and Zeph?

It's still kind of tempting when on sale, and I trust the reliability more than others, but I wish it weighed a pound less and had a better screen and speakers

[Leyman]

Overdrive is max fans + Overclock.

After this logic, they would have to OC in Synapse everything as well and choose max fans e.g.
I think it's too time consuming

[Leyman]

Alienware has: Quiet, Balanced, Performance and Overdrive (OC). Compared to other laptops, the performance is more equal to Turbo, I think.

[Commenter]

No OLED is NOT a drawback. I just don't understand why notebookcheck keep praising OLED, omitting its glare and PWM nature inferiority. You might even get a windows logo burned in after a few years of use. Though if the laptop its something you iterate for 2-3years, it's fine.

[Gastredner]

.I was surprised by how little it beats the Blade!

Not so little. The Alienware gets as loud as the Blade during gaming (50db) while pushing 55 watts more. This translates to 11% better performance in Alan Wake on QHD, what you would like to use as it is the native resolution (actually QHD+). If you throttle down the Alienware to the Blade's performance you will get noticably quieter and less annoyingly loud fans.